The Great Cheer-Off! Who Will Win?
The Great Cheer-Off! Who Will Win? is the tenth episode of Relaxing Chime Pretty Cure. Major Events * Cherri officially joins the cheer squad. Synopsis At a basketball game, things are going rather smoothly between the Wolves and their cross-town rivals the Wildcats until the ball goes stray and right towards the Niji no Yume cheer squad. Yuki bats the ball towards Cherri and knocks her down, feigning innocence as she does so. The next day, Cherri, learning that Yuki had been disciplined for the incident, takes the opportunity to undermine her, challenging her to a cheer-off for the role of captain. Yuki accepts the challenge and sets a date for three days down, at the American football stadium. Not wanting to give up her position so easily, she has a surprise up her sleeve for Cherri: she'll be backed by her squad, while Cherri must use other cheerleaders ("And no one who isn't on my squad will be willing to assist our super-beautiful mascot, I can promise you that!"). Atsuko, upon learning of Cherri's predicament, agrees to be part of her ragtag team of cheerleaders for the cheer-off, and Subaru also joins up, mentioning that she had wanted to teach Yuki a lesson for some time. Airi is also quick to volunteer, having had some outside experience as a cheerleader herself when she was younger. Kirara and Hiroaki, upon correspondence with Atsuko and Airi over the matter, also decide to help Cherri for the cheer-off. Subaru mentions that fresh uniforms are being prepared for them for the occasion by the school tailor, who she knows. Cherri starts out with easy drills for the newly formed cheerleader squad to learn while trying to boost their spirits since they have been beaten down by all of Yuki's insults. They start off good, but it seems bad luck seems to ruin their chances at every turn, be it their uniforms and pom-poms coming in defective or their names being written off the list for practice by Yuki and her crew. Regardless of whatever adversity is facing them, though, Cherri will not give up finding new ways to help, including making new uniforms and finding a new practice room, but unknown to them Yuki sent Renfield to spy on them and film their performance. The day of the contest, the group is ready to go after Yuki's performance... which is the exact same as theirs. Cherri gets annoyed and calls Yuki out on it, but Yuki turns it around on her by claiming she has no proof and is just saying that because they don't have a routine ready. As the group walks off laughing, Cherri glares, but Subaru puts a hand on her shoulder and tells her to stay calm and that they'll be able to figure out a new routine within the half an hour they have before it's their turn. They use that time to figure out how to counter Yuki's performance. Using the exact same logic she had used to counter Mikie's performance during the skills test at Oshiro Ballet Academy some days before, Airi deduces that Yuki's routine was a mere show of power, and so they need to emphasize teamwork and friendship for their routine. She and Hiroaki also decide to infuse elements of ballet into their new routine, and Cherri exclaims that that is a good idea and mentions that she had herself studied ballet for a time when she was younger in the hopes of becoming a cheerleader. As they're working on their new routine, Slash appears, dressed as a cheerleader, and possesses Yuki's pom-poms in an attempt to further demoralize the Cures. Seeing right through it, Atsuko and her friends transform together, beating the snot out of the Shāpunoizu and declaring to Slash that there are great and admirable qualities they have and she doesn't, such as the power of friendship, and without them she'll never win. Cherri shields herself and her friends from an attempted second wind courtesy of the Shāpunoizu, and Airi finishes it off with a Flower Twister. After the performance, Akihiko walks up to the Cures with photographic evidence of Yuki's cheating, having seen the whole thing. Subaru mutters that she kind of figured that flash outside of the practice area seemed odd, and Akihiko tells her she can thank him later before going over to confront Yuki with the evidence that her performance had been stolen from the other team. Trivia * Cherri's routine during the climax is set to "Teamwork", from the Reading Rainbow episode "A Chair for My Mother". * Subaru knowing ballet is brought up again in this episode, and is used to the Cures' advantage during the cheer-off.